Press Release: Internal Market and the ‘New Approach’ to product regulation: Commission launches on-line consultation

The 'New Approach' to product regulation has made a major contribution to 10 years of success of the single market. The on-line stakeholder consultation, launched on 7 January 2002, is part of a broader effort by Commissioner Liikanen and the Enterprise Directorate-General to reinforce the proper functioning of the internal market. The consultation is part of a review intended to overhaul, update and upgrade the European Union's New Approach' to product regulation. The key goal of this approach is to enhance the safety and performance of industrial products while at the same time ensuring their free circulation within the single market. This is done by laying down only essential requirements concerning safety and/or environmental performance, leaving it up to entrepreneurs to choose the appropriate technical solution to meet these requirements. Those solutions very often lead to the development of European standards, which have the advantage of not only being flexible enough to keep pace with technological progress but also of minimising the administrative burden placed on enterprises.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/newapproach/index.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/newapproach/index.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/consultations/index.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/consultations/index.htm

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